29 July 2023
A curbside memorial marks the spot where Mendota Heights police officer Scott Patrick was murdered during a traffic stop just over the city’s border in West St. Paul nine years ago Sunday.
People still leave flowers, candles and other things at the spot on Dodd Road, just south of Smith Avenue, to pay tribute to Patrick, a well-known officer who took pride in his community-based policing during his nearly two decades as a cop.
Neil Garlock stopped by the site Friday morning with a can of blue spray-paint. He went over the “MHPD” and “2231,” Patrick’s badge number, which someone first put on Dodd Road a year to the day after the 47-year-old officer was fatally shot.
Garlock was Patrick’s field-training officer for three months, then his sergeant. He retired 61 days before Patrick’s killing, which happened in broad daylight on July 30, 2014.
“I’m always cleaning this area up, cigarette butts or whatever it is,” said Garlock, who lives four blocks away in Mendota Heights, where he was mayor from 2017-2020. “I say it every year: ‘This is very sacred ground for this community. This is not going to be forgotten.’ ”
Local, state and federal officials are doing their part to make sure that is the case. In December, a project to realign the Smith Avenue and Dodd Road intersection was included in a $30 million funding package secured by U.S. Representative Angie Craig for communities in Dakota and Scott counties. The $3.1 million set aside for the intersection realignment includes funding for a public gathering space and permanent memorial for Patrick near the spot of his death.
Preliminary plans for the project are now in the works, with a final design coming next year and construction in 2025. It is too early to say what the memorial will look like, but Patrick’s family will be “the driving force” when it comes to that, West St. Paul city manager Nate Burkett said Friday.
Mendota Heights memorial
With 19 years of service, Patrick was the police department’s most senior officer and the lone one to die in the line of duty. The husband and father of two daughters spent much of his tenure on the force as a patrol officer.
In 2018, a 5-foot-tall polished granite memorial for Patrick was dedicated at Market Square Park in Mendota Heights. It includes a U.S. flag, with a picture of Patrick in place of the stars. In place of the stripes are words that describe how he died at the hands of Brian Fitch Sr., who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2015 and is serving life in prison without parole.
A stone memorial celebrating the life of Mendota Heights police officer Scott Patrick was dedicated in Mendota Heights’ Market Square Park on Monday, July 30, 2018. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Patrick’s widow, Michelle Patrick, has wanted a permanent memorial where he was killed. West St. Paul city council members approved that site as a temporary location in May 2018. However, the city had long-term plans to redevelop the land as part of the intersection project, so the memorial eventually would have been removed.
Michelle Patrick said she did not want a memorial moved once it was up, so it was shifted to the spot in Mendota Heights.
That memorial was the work of a committee that stemmed from a 2015 legal settlement Michelle Patrick reached with the city of Mendota Heights. Five months before his death, Scott Patrick filed a lawsuit against the city accusing the former police chief of harassment and workplace retaliation after Patrick alleged two officers stole a picnic table.
The settlement included the establishment of the memorial committee to celebrate Patrick’s life.
‘The sacrifice he suffered’
As the years have passed, Michelle Patrick said, it has become easier for her to return to the site.
Mendota Heights Police Officer Scott Patrick (Courtesy of Mike Brue)
“At first, it was really hard to even drive down that road, especially on a sunny day like it was that day,” said Patrick, who now lives in North St. Paul. “At first, as I was driving, I would see (Patrick’s dash-cam) video in my mind. I would have to shake my head to get the image out. I guess I don’t think about that anymore.”
She has plenty of tough days. One was June 4, which would have been the couple’s 35th wedding anniversary.
“I was going to go out for dinner by myself,” she said, “but then I’m like, ‘I’m tired.’ So I sat at home and watched movies by myself.”
She said she hasn’t put too much thought into what could be incorporated into the West St. Paul permanent memorial.
“I do think it’d be cool to do a cement pattern of his badge,” she said. “I just know it will be really great when it’s finally done. I know a lot of people will never forget him. But it will also make it so other people know about him and the sacrifice that he suffered.”
Scott Patrick annual gathering
An annual public gathering will be held 12:15 p.m. Sunday at Dodd Road and Smith Avenue marking nine years since Patrick’s death.
A moment of silence will be held at 12:20 p.m., marking the time Patrick was shot.
Speakers include Sen. Matt Klein, DFL-Mendota Heights, and Mike Brue, Patrick’s brother.
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